There are many things I am passionate about besides fibers. Assuming of course, they involve color. Yes it’s true; nothing can send my pulse racing like a length of hand dyed silk fabric in a perfectly balanced blend of colors. Or a skein of yarn that feels as wonderful as it’s subtly shifting palette of split complimentary hues-looks. Fibers, be they fabric or yarns (the two forms I most commonly work with) are soft and (more often) matte finished. Except for when metallics have been added to give them some glitz, fibers absorb light and look as soft as they usually feel. Just as colors need a touch of their compliment in almost any art project to give it contrast and spark, textures need a bit of their compliment too. What is the perfect compliment for fiber? Metals and glass!
My favorite metal by far is silver. I’m very definitely not a yellow gold person. Brass is too much like gold, it’s yellowness makes me feel a bit jaundice just to look at it. Copper is nice, it’s a warm version of yellow that is really more red and has a healthy glow to it. But silver! Cool, elegant, neutral, and versatile, it’s the color of the moon, a stormy sea, a brooding sky, starlight, and the mirror finish that sunlight gives to a calm lake; it blends with all other colors… except yellow. But yellow is always an accent color for me, never a main color so that’s OK.
Glass is also a favorite for me. You can use colors in glass like a dyer uses color in fiber. Blending bright and shocking or soft and subtle, even neutrals. Glass is shiny, textured, smooth, or etched. Incredibly versatile in itself it is the perfect complement to fiber. More on glass next time.
Jewelry is the easiest way to add that contrast of hard, sharp, or shiny to a soft, drapey (is that a word?), matte fabric. So (I’m finally getting to the point), Here is the first of two necklaces my Dear Hubby made me for Christmas. Formed of silver PMC (Precious Metal Clay) and inset with a lab grown emerald (natural stones can’t take the heat of the kiln), he created a pendant for me that is just, well…. so me! Just for reference, the triangle pendant measures one inch wide by one and a quarter inches tall. It’s pretty cool stuff. Anything you can do with clay, you can do with Silver clay. Firing it in a kiln causes the binders in the finely ground pure silver to burn away and fusses the silver particles together into a solid metal. Fascinating stuff!
OK, off to paint some more of the trim in my hall way. This domestic stuff just sooooo gets in the way 😉
Deb H
